In today’s digest, we’re re-upping our current pitch call! We’re commissioning for our third annual print magazine, looking at shifts in the industry post-2020 and following up on newsroom promises around diversity, equity, and equity.

An abbreviated version of our media links is on Instagram each week, focusing on what a handful of those stories say about how power and identity impact journalism. (Previous week’s here.)

—James Salanga

The Objective was founded in 2020, as the “media reckoning” after George Floyd’s murder saw newsrooms’ double standards around objectivity delegitimizing Black reporters’ work. 

As attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies intended to desegregate workplaces have ramped up during the second Trump administration, creating a physical record of newsrooms’ efforts to meaningfully address anti-Blackness and systemic harms in their coverage and staffing ensures this history and moment won’t be forgotten. 

So we’re looking for reported news stories following post-2020 shifts in the industry between 800-1,200 words for our third annual print magazine. We pay $0.50/word, and looking for stories that will be filed between June-July.

Pitch us and read the full pitch call here.

Each week, we summarize a snapshot of the how and why behind what made headlines this week, both in and about journalism. Have a story you think we should include in this section of next week’s newsletter? Let us know here or by responding to this email.

🌏 Alex Ip, climate journalist and founder of The Xylom, wrote about his experience of pursuing — and ultimately being denied — a work permit and choosing to self-deport to Hong Kong. This follows a pattern of international journalists moving or being deported abroad as it becomes more and more difficult to stay.

🔨 Journalism as infrastructure? It’s already happening across the U.S., Parker Molloy argues for Dame Magazine, pointing to models across Illinois and New Jersey — though nothing is a “silver bullet.”

📉 NPR is offering buyouts to 300 employees to address the complete lack of federal funding. While the broadcaster says the actual number of buyouts accepted will be much smaller, it says targeted layoffs will happen if less than 30 buyouts are taken.

💰 Vox (and New York Magazine) have a new owner: James Murdoch, youngest son of conservative media titan Rupert Murdoch, bought the two companies and is also buying the Vox Media Podcast Network. While James Murdoch has publicly split with the ideology of his father’s properties, his ownership represents a shift for Vox, considered a major Obama-era digital powerhouse.

🔎 Thousands of articles from FiveThirtyEight have disappeared and the archived version of the site is now redirecting to ABC News. Nate Silver, founder of FiveThirtyEight and now independent, revealed on social media that he had tried to buy the intellectual property rights for the polling analysis site but was rejected. The written record of the blog that successfully predicted Obama’s win in 2008 is now gone.

🤔 The New York Times published an op-ed by Nick Kristof detailing a pattern of systemic sexual abuse by IDF forces, which groups like Writers Against the War on Gaza have have decried as op-ed as “too little, too late.” They have called for unsubscribing and divestment from the Times.

👉 FOLLOW-UP: Nieman Lab analysis shows nearly 400 news organizations across 10 countries are now limiting access to the Internet Archive. This follows its reporting in January first documenting the shift. As the Internet Archive loses the ability to archive articles, these digital records and history invaluable to researchers and historians are disappearing.

This issue is by James Salanga and Marlee Baldridge. Thanks for reading. We’ll have more for you next week.

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